We were soldiers
by baynard
Summary: Humans evolved their technology based on the events of Halo and have finally run into the bigger galactic community. This is the story of how Tali'Zorah met John Shepard before their battle with the reapors.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey guys been a while hasn't it? Feels like it's been forever since I've picked up a pen and put it to paper, and now I don't even want to think about how rusty I am (though tbh reading back my stories I wasn't that good to begin with haha). My self imposed exile from writing has mostly been due to laziness and a lost of interest in writing more than anything else, but recently life has become a lot more stressful for me so I've taken up the pen again in the hope that it will still have the same soothing effects it had on me in my earlier teen years. I'm deviating away from the naruto and harry potter realm I had fancied when younger, though I might dust of my muse for that if this helps me in any way. Mass effect has become my #1 favorite game usurping Halo from its long held throne in my books. But Halo will always hold a place in my heart as the first game I ever owned, and so I decided to mix both in my story. No doubt I'll steal ideas from other places as well (cookie for u if u can spot them =p) but the main elements will consist of a clash between ME and Halo. **

**This chapter was kinda done on the fly from memory so there may be a lot of errors and mistakes, and I might come clean up later once I review the info a bit, but please tell me what you think.**

Rael'Zorah stood apart from the other multitude of quarians who milled about before the entryway leading to the docking station. His rank of admiral separated him from all but two of the others present. Shala'Raan the best friend of his deceased wife and Han'Gerrel his own best friend since childhood. But even they stood slightly apart from him, for today was the day that had haunted Rael's dreams for the past 9 months, the day his daughter would return to the Migrant Fleet.

A gloved three fingered hand rested heavily on the tense admiral's shoulder and the man turned to face his long time friend. "Been a long 9 months eh Rael?" The thick baritone voice grounded out even through the voice filter showing the militant minded Admiral's marine background. Han'Gerrel was a simple man who did not believe in blunting his words or hiding his feelings, perhaps a habit picked up from being a ground pounder for the better parts of two decades. But then so had Rael, so the fretting man understood the intentions behind his friends words.

Rael tried to reply, but could find no words that could express his current state of being and chose to give a jerky nod instead. The hand on his shoulder tightened in a supportive squeeze before falling away.

Rael'Zorah had lost much weight in the past 9 months, parts of his suit visibly sagging away to indicate where muscle and a thin layer of fat had once been. The constant worry for his wayward daughter had caused him to neglect his own health, and had it not been for Shala he would have wasted away even more.

"I left here there Han. Her own damn father left her on that god forsaken ring world! How can I face her?" The pain in his voice could not be hidden by the mask that obstructed his face like that of all other quarians.

"We left her behind Rael." The thick accented voice of Shala'Raan gave away her ancestry from the northern sect of Rannoch, a trait that was still passed on among the crew of ships housing the descendants of the Northerners who had fled their home world over 300 years past. "The decision was not solely yours, we are to blame as much as you. The Migrant Fleet had been in danger and we made the decision to leave our people behind on the construct to ensure the safety of the rest of the Fleet."

Rael hung his head with a sigh. He had heard the argument many times over in the past months and used it a few times himself when his depression was particularly strong. The words rang hollow whenever he thought of his absent daughter who had not yet even gone on her pilgrimage. Leaving those quarians behind on the ring world construct they had stumbled upon had not been a decision hard to make, and in the end it was not that decision that gnawed away at his gut. It was the fact that he had pushed his daughter to excel, to groom her to become the best of the Fleet that had put her in a situation where barely at the tender age of 17 she was assigned to be one of the first people to explore an alien construct due to her prowess in engineering. She had been sent in the first wave of explorers to the damnable construct because of him, and because of him she had to be left behind. Rael had never voiced those thoughts aloud to anyone, not even his closest friend, but secretly he wondered if his wife cursed his name from the afterlife.

'_Forgive me Lerinya.' _Most left behind on the ring world had perished in the ensuing battle between the humans and the covenant forces that had caused the Migrant Fleet to flee, but a handful had managed to make their way back to the Migrant Fleet with the aid of the humans. Tali'Zorah was the last quarian yet to be returned to the fleet, but her survival had been confirmed by the human's months prior. For whatever reason it had taken her almost half a year after her survival was established for her to make her way back to the Fleet, each day spent away aging Rael by years.

As his daughter approached their home, the weight of his decision haunted him more deeply than it had when he had not known of her survival.

"Tali would understand Rael. She loves the Fleet as much as you and I if not more so. She would have never forgiven us had we stayed because of her and risked the lives of others." Though Han'Gerrel's words rung true, it did little to ease the guilt squeezing the worried father's guts.

Whatever else Han'Gerral was about to say was cut off as the quarantine light above the exit flashed to life, indicating that the decontamination chamber of the Neema had activated. Soft amber light flickered as groans and hisses filled the air. The crowd standing behind the three admirals' murmured restlessly as they prepared to welcome back one of the Fleet's daughters thought to be lost. With a final shuddering groan, the sounds from the 300 year old decontamination chamber ground to a halt. The massive steel doors that could let ten quarians through standing shoulder to shoulder parted with a hiss and a cloud of super heated disinfecting steam. The shadowed figure within stutter stepped for a moment, as if shocked by the amount of people waiting for her at the entryway. Claps and cheers quickly filled the room as quarians celebrated the return of the final member of the expedition to Halo. Tali'Zorah nar Raya was home.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: sup guys, more brain fluff. Just kinda edited myself, so don't go hating on the mistakes. Feel free to point them out so I can fix them though, no idea about this whole Beta business that's been introduced since I was last publishing here.**

Before the fleeing of their home world, the quarians had one of the most unique cultures in the galaxy, second only to the asari, and the asari culture was only so diverse due to the fact that they assimilated basically any culture they ran into. 300 years of nomadic space wandering had altered the quarians culture in ways no one could have foreseen. While a lot of traditions and practices were still very much alive aboard the Migrant Fleet, the reality of their situation forced many adaptations that would forever alter the interactions of quarians.

When they had first fled Rannoch, the hope had been that they could reclaim one of their colony planets from the geth and resettle the population before preparing to retake the home world. But as the fleet of refugee's were repelled from colony to colony by their former robotic servants, it soon became clear that the quarians would not be settling back on one of their colonies. At this point in time, the refugees had assumed that their fleet of ships would only be a temporary solution until they could find a habitable planet to begin colonizing, but months turned to years as the search continued. Planet after planet was found unsuitable and the few that might have supported the unique bodies of the quarians had already been claimed by other races. Without an embassy, they could not even petition properly for settling an uninhabited planet within citadel space.

Soon a whole generation of quarians were born and raised upon the ships, a generation of children who had never known a planet they could call home. Wandering had become the norm, and slowly the quarian people began to realize that their ships may be all they have for a long time. It was at this point that their scientists had really begun focusing their efforts less on finding a new home but more on making sure their current one could sustain them in the years to come while the search continued. The quarian immune system had always been unique amongst the other sentient races. Rather than having a search and destroy function as most species had, the quarian immune sysem instead adapted their whole body towards an invading foreign microorganism. During the adaptation process the quarian was extremely sick as their bodies changed, sometimes down to the molecular level, in order to accommodate the invading microbes.

Quarians that had been raised on different worlds would often differ slightly in their body makeup, and a quick blood analysis could often determine from which planet a quarian hailed from, sometimes even down to what sector. Of course the adaptation process was not only grueling, but often lethal as well. It was not unheard of for quarians to die before their body could adapt to a particularly strong strand of invasive microorganism. The changes wrought in the body of the quarian would be passed to their children, but if there is not a constant exposure to the same microorganism the body had specifically adapted towards, the adaptation would fade with time, often before the toddler could even speak. Without a constant bombardment of invading microorganisms, the new generation of quarians born on the sterile ships was found to have a weaker adaptation process. A much higher percentage of the space born quarians were dying from exposure to foreign germs and microbes. Scientists' predicted that the decline in the quarian people's immune system would only continue to get worst.

It was at this point in time that the first environmental suit had been designed and put into production. It was mainly for only those quarians who had to leave the Migrant Fleet so that they could be protected from alien microbes. Within a few years of the first production of the suits, it became standard issue for anyone leaving the ships, however they were still free to roam about their own ships without them. But as the ships got older and the ability to maintain sterilizing equipment became lax due to decreasing resources, quarians returning to the Migrant Fleet would often unintentionally bring back invasive species that got into the ship. People began to get sick and the illness would often spread from ship to ship as people traveled about. It became common practice for crew members to become permanently confined to certain ships rather then moving around in order to limit the spread of the illness that sometimes sprang up on ships who've received members that had journeyed away from the fleet.

But even that was not enough. Near the 100 year anniversary of the Quarian people's flight from Rannoch, a deadly virus got onboard the battle cruiser Deferen, and quickly spread across the entire fleet. What was supposedly a hanar equivalent to the flu was particularly hard for the quarian immune system to adapt to, and the plague claimed nearly half the lives of those living in the Migrant Fleet at the time. Losing almost 20 million quarians was a shock that required action, and so the admiralty board at the time had ordered the mass production of then environmental suits and decreed that all members were to keep them on unless in a sanitized room. Thus began the quarian people's entrapment within their own creation. For the first group of quarians confined within the suits who had known the freedom of walking in clothes on their own ship, it was a hateful relationship that they would die with. Claustrophobia was common for this first generation of suit users, and mental breakdowns were to be expected as a regular occurrence.

It would have been too expensive to constantly fit a growing child with an environmental suit, so instead the sterilization bubble was implemented. The child was placed within the translucent globe the minute they could walk, and their whole interaction with the world was through the bubble that could not be penetrated by anything unless it was introduced on purpose from the outside. And even then the cost of producing the sterile bubble was too much to be available for each child. Instead, special sterilized rooms were built where children were kept safe within to ensure they would not be exposed when not out and about in the sterilization bubbles. This of course limited the interaction between parent and their children, but it was a cost most were willing to pay. Children could not receive their first suit until their growth had stabilized somewhat, and the first suit was seen as a transition from childhood to adolescent.

The cost of making new environmental suits and maintaining old ones became a strain upon the Migrant Fleets resources, and logistics at the time projected that within a few decades resource acquirement of the Fleet could not keep up with the need and demands of the quarian people. Knowing this, many quarians began to take it upon themselves to journey away from the Fleet in order to acquire resources to bring back to sustain their people. Within a few decades, the habits of a few became the practice of the whole. Due to the earlier decree of quarians being confined to their home ships, interbreeding was fast becoming a problem aboard ships with small crew whose members were all practically interrelated in some way or another. Migration to another ship upon reaching adulthood had become the norm by then, but with the popularity of journeying outside the Fleet to bring back resources, it practically became a requirement in order to be accepted as a crew member on board a new ship. And thus the pilgrimage became an integrated part of quarian culture that doubled as a survival mechanism for their species.

The journey back to the Fleet with new resources became a rite of passage to adulthood, and with it came the mark of a new suit to emphasize that the quarian had shed the skin of childhood and become, a full adult member of the Migrant Fleet. No longer was the self containing environmental suit seen as a thing to hate, quarians began to take pride in the appearance of their suits. Before when the suits had first become wide spread in usage, the automated HUD would display the name of the person you were looking at. With their new found identity linked to their suits quarians began to painstakingly alter their outfits, often in artistic fashion in order to represent themselves. The HUD display program could still be called up in an instant, but it was no longer an active part of the software system of the HUD. Instead quarians began to distinguish people by the designs and patterns of a particular person's environmental suit. No two quarians would have the exact same designs, and even if they were a close match, size difference and walking patterns would become a dead giveaway. The appearance of the environmental suit had become a representation of the quarian not only as a person, but physically who they are.

So when Tali'zorah stepped from the shadows of the decontamination chamber, people were understandably stunned into silence. It would have been the human equivalent of sending your son to college and having a daughter return for Christmas break.

**An: went a bit wild in the descriptions here, and didn't really even advance the story that much haha. Hopefully things will begin to clear up in the next two chapters, and we'll be seeing some combat soon on top of meeting John. Couldn't help the joke at the end after all that seriousness ;p**


	3. Chapter 3

Rael Zorah hesitated as he halted in front of the engineering bay where his daughter had been reassigned to since she returned to the Fleet. Her return had heralded a rush of whispers about how much his only daughter had changed in the last nine months that she had been away from the fleet. Rael had had to stop himself from punching out more than one male that had been discreetly commenting about how womanly she had become when they were not aware of his presence. A quick clearing of his throat had quickly sent that group of adolescents scrambling.

But the whispers for her change were not unwarranted. Tali Zorah was no longer the same girl that had landed on Halo. It was easy to point at the outward appearance and say that that was the source of change, but to anyone who truly knew her, the startling changes were not in the physical.

Her dull purple environmental suit had been patched up so many times it may as well have not been the same suit anymore. Here and there, mismatched fabric and armor jutted out wildly, evidence of replacement parts that had been incorporated into the suits structure to make up for breaches and weaknesses. Almost the entire left leg of the suit had been replaced with a dark heavier fabric that was bulkier and more protective in appearance, and the same material was present in a number of other locations on her newly patchwork outfit.

Hard metallic light silver armor plating was also thrown into the mix match of armor, the organic but sturdy looking material most prominent on her right shoulder. The misty semi translucent face mask that once showed her glowing vibrant eyes had been replaced by a dark slightly angular reflective casing that showed nothing but darkness. While body language gave much a way, the eyes were still the most noticeable feature that helped quarians gauge one another's reaction. Tali's emotions which had once been so easy to read now seemed like close book to Rael.

But more shocking to him was how much her personality had changed. Tali had always been on the quiet side, though she did not lack in friends. Her near genius technical expertise and humble demeanor had earned her a lot of admirers, even before her alarming growth spurt during her time away with the human's. The past few days had seen a much more lively and vibrant Tali who had spent time chatting with seemingly everyone on board the Raya even as she began overhauling the ship's systems after gaining permission from the captain, using her newly gained insights while working on board human warships to improve the Raya's efficiency.

Everyone he spoke to reported back a cheerful girl who inquired about everything from the past happenings in the fleet while she was gone to the latest ship gossip while cracking jokes even as she skillfully worked away on the ship. Gone was the slight stutter and hand wringing whenever she was nervous, replaced by a straight spine and direct unseeing stare that was slightly unnerving for the moments when she did fall into silence.

Raising his hand to knock, Rael paused as his audio receptors picked up voices in the room, one of which he recognized as his daughter, but the other was decidedly not quarian. Hesitating for a moment, Rael decided to breach quarian etiquette and instead pushed the doorway aside without announcing his presence.

His daughter's back was turned to him, but she was seated before a vid screen where an alien face was staring back out into the room. The lights had been turned off so the screen lit up like a beacon in the darkness, but the not entirely unquarian looking being on the screen turned slightly and seemed to stare out at Rael. It seemed Tali was video messaging someone. A friend she made from her time away?

"Hey Tali, think you have a visitor." The person on the other end of the screen that spoke looked decidedly human, much too similar in looks to the newly discovered aliens that had warned the fleet of their impending military action on the Halo ring to be a coincidence.

His daughter turned from the screen to face him, and much to his shock he could see her face through the faceplate which had turned translucent. His breath caught in his throat as he drunk in the sight of his only daughter who he had not seen face to face since she was eleven, getting her first adult environmental suit. He had spent a week sick for that opportunity, but it had been worth it.

Turning back to the human, Tali gave a wave of her hand. "I'll talk to you later John. Stay safe out there."

The human laughed and returned her wave. "You know me Tali. The devil will have to take me kicking and screaming!"

The video blanked out and the dim lighting in the room returned. As Tali stood up, she touched the side of her helmet with a finger and when she faced him again the black mask had returned.

"You look so much like your mother," began Rael, trying hard not to choke up.

Wordlessly, Tali stepped forward into his open arms and he held is daughter close, basking in her presence. "I'm glad you managed to return home Tali. You had no idea how worried I was."

"Me too dad. I missed you."

The words ate away at his gut, but Rael ignored it and tightened his embrace. His fingers brushed up against hard metal attached to his daughter's lower waist and a quick glance over her shoulder showed him the holstered shotgun of make he didn't recognized magnetically attached to her back.

Another change he would have to start getting used to. There was no strict rule against walking around the ship armed; there had never been a need for such a rule. They were amongst their own species in a community where everything and anything but their suits was shared. There was no thievery; after all you can't steal something you technically owned. Disputes were resolved long before violence crossed anyone's mind simply because their culture couldn't afford such divisions if they were to survive as a species.

"You've told me that every night you know," she gently joked as she backed up a step. "I get the feeling this isn't a social call. What did you need dad?"

Straightening his own body, Rael matched his daughter's posture as he looked into her blank facemask. "You are correct. We have an unprecedented opportunity at hand. The humans have extended an offer of amnesty in their own region of space, and have offered up one of the dextro based planets they use mostly for military purposes in exchange for our joining of the Alliance."

"That's wonderful news!" said Tali, returning a bit to her old self as she bounced on her toes. "I heard there was some talk about it when I was on the Fury, but I didn't think it would pan out so quickly."

"Indeed." Rael cleared his throat to get his excited daughter's attention back on track. "But it's not so simple Tali. We're being offered a planet to colonize in exchange for giving up our sovereignty as a people to join their conglomerate. We have no guarantee that this will go well for the quarian people."

"The Alliance isn't just some group out to annex people dad," Tali argued. "I've seen enough of their structure to know that it's more of a trade and military alliance than anything else. Each group still holds true to their own cultures and values. They even have their own military branches even though there is also a joint Alliance force as well. They can be trusted!"

Nodding Rael let his daughter speak her mind before continuing. "You know this, and I trust your judgment on this, but the others do not. The Admiralty board is divided relatively sharply on what should be done, and while the civilian council is leaning towards accepting the human's aid, the ultimate decision will fall on the others and I as this is considered a military matter. You had a memory crystal on you while you were on the ring world to record everything you saw for examination?"

Tali nodded. The memory crystal was an ingenious device that could be subtly worked into a quarian's suit that recorded everything they saw from a tiny helmet cam. The memory crystal itself was a breakthrough quarian invention that utilized quantum computing as a method for storing data that had never been filled to capacity by anyone as of yet. Even having had it recording for almost 9 months straight, the crystal was still not full.

"That memory shard might hold the key to swaying the decision in either direction Tali. I need it so that the board and I can examine your time with the humans and see if have anything in there that might help give us insight into how to make our decision."

Again Tali nodded slowly before reaching up and pulling the tiny fingertip sized crystal from the slot on the backside of her helmet. For a moment she stared at the stored device in her hand before gently placing it in Rael's.

"The humans, they are not so different from us. Like every species, they have the good and bad sides to them. They are a people that are slow to trust and quick to anger, but value their friendships. They can be trusted."

Rael closed his hand carefully around the crystal. He had suggested this course of action to break the deadlock the admiralty board found themselves in currently. Ran was abstaining and the usual sides had been drawn between Han and Zal with their newest member supporting the apologist and Rael backing his old friend, though he harbored doubts about turning down the human's offer. Even if they were assimilated into the human culture, it might be worth it to save their people. What good was preserving your culture if only corpses remained as evidence? More than anything, he hoped the memory shard would hold some insight into the stranger his daughter had become. Selfish perhaps, but he was tired of being an admiral before being a father.

"I would like the shard back when you are done with it," said Tali as he turned to leave. "They hold a lot of memories of my friends."

Nodding once, Rael left through the parted door and paused outside as he closed the entryway. Muted music began to play from his daughter's room, the lyrics lagging somewhat as his translator struggled to pick up the words.

_Now the dark begins to rise,_

_Save your breath it's far from over,_

_Leave the lost and dead behind,_

_Now's your chance to run for cover._

_I don't want to change the world,_

_I just want to leave it colder._

_Light the fuse and let it burn,_

_Take the path that leads to nowhere..._

The human lyrics faded away as his steps carried him away from her room, and silently he swore to himself he would come to understand the changes that his daughter had gone through. He owed Lerinya that much.

**AN: Gonna clean up first two chapters later. I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.**


End file.
